Mental Game of Poker Podcast

I’ve just woken up from a post-vegas 15 hour sleep, if anyone thinks that sleeping for that length of time is pleasant, even after a long period without it, think again, my hands are shaking and I have no idea what day it is. I’d love to claim I needed the sleep after a week ofrock’n’roll decadence, but it was a pretty tame but very enjoyable journey to the WSOP for me.

I met up with most of the Ladbrokes crew that were kind enough to send me as a reporter at Gatwick airport but we were all scattered around the plane so it wasn’t until the landing that I actually got to chat with them. I got a Limo to Caesars with Sam from Ladbrokes, a journalist from the Star called Carl Eldrige and a girl called Abi whom I assumed worked with Ladbrokes. It was only after an hour of my usual teasing of a complete stranger that I realised it was actually Abi Titmuss. Then all of a sudden I had gone from treating her like any other girl to sneakily texting every bloke I know the text:

“I’m in a muthafucking Limo with Abi Titmuss Dawg!”(Which is how I speak in everyday situations)

My first night was spent on the lash, mainly at the Phil Ivey Karaoke party which I am pretty certain Phil Ivey never went to. I bumped into Chris ‘Noflopshomer’ Hall and spent most of the night falling asleep on my feet. I also met another Ladbrokes ‘stunna’ – Page 3 girl Leilani, but I was too tired to text the lads at this point.

Karaoke in the States is just like Karaoke anywhere else, the tragic terrible singer is followed by the tragic good-but-never-made-it singer and then the I’m-pissed-look-at-me singer. However, one variable in USA Karaoke is the fella who nipped on stage and sang the American national anthem. The crowd went nuts and I decided there and then that if I ever got attacked while out in Vegas, rather than run or fight I will just sing the American National Anthem and make my move when the culprit is completely immersed in the final verse.

On my second day I played in one of the deepstack events at Caesars Palace and was chip leader after hand number one, when my pocket aces became aces full of sevens against kings. The tournament went tremendously when, for the next 4 hours, every hand I raised I won, usually by flopping the nuts. It wasn’t until the bubble when I had a monster stack did I lose any money – four times in a row against a Scandie with a short stack who by the 3rd double up had enough money to crack my aces with King-jack and send me out of the tournament on the bubble. Sigh...

We spent a lot of time with Steve Davis in the Ladbrokes Lounge and he really is exactly how you expect him to be. Humble, funny, nice and really addicted to poker, it was fun and insightful to interview him and his very refreshing views on the game (Besides being rich enough to play in the big game he plays 0.50/1 PLO and gets as excited about small wins of$200 playing online as he does a £40,000 win playing snooker). He also put on a master class at the pool table and cleared it in under 40 seconds. I don’t do interviews that much but Steve was great as was the voice of poker, Jesse May.

Meeting Steve Davis was an honour, but he was just a normal bloke and I treated him as such, just like I do any other poker player. However, it’s rare that you get to meet two of your heroes from stage and screen which led me to shame myself by asking for the following photos:

I had a very enjoyable PLO game at the Mirage one night with Lee Jones from Pokerstars/Cardrunners. A very fun, very friendly guy at the table and a brilliant help to all the dealers as he really knew his stuff......not that good a PLO player though. As soon as I sat down, I got instant respect at the table and everyone was telling me I must be an amazing PLO player because I was from Europe. Every bet I made got respect and my rare bluffs tended to work out. I also got some sick hands. I flopped the nuts with a nut flush redraw with ac-4c-as-js on a ah-6c-9c board and managed to get it paid. I also lost a 22 out straight and flush draw against a mere set of sevens and won a four way all-in (admittedly it was a chop) with a wrap and flush draw against a nut flush draw, top two and a set and wrap. I cant begin to recount the flop and hands but the wrap got there and the dealer had a lot of counting to do. The standard was pretty good at the table, but still good value as Europeans get too much respect.

Ladbrokes put on a heads-up lecture/tournament with Jeff Kimber which I managed to win too, beating Paul Jackson in round number one. Generally I played exactly how Jeff said he would have played while analysing my play apart from one call which was best explained as a cash game call, so I guess that makes me as good as Jeff Kimber lol (Of course a joke, my mate claimed he was almost as good as Ryan Giggs because he could do every trick from his soccer skills video).

I’ll report more on Vegas when I have a clearer head, at the moment I’m really hazy and knackered. One pleasant surprise is that I lost a pound of weight out there, now down to 15st 6lb, mainly due to not eating much at all out there. Why I have no idea but lets not look that gift horse in the mouth.